A single woman dreaming of happiness; a bank employee whose marriage is in crisis; a Catholic priest on the losing end of a shrinking, over-aged congregation; a factory worker who stands wearily and disinterestedly between her husband and son; a forester and his family in an everyday life obscured by rituals.
Five semi-documentary miniatures are intended to answer one question in the second feature film by Ruth Mader, born in Vienna in 1974: What is love? The answers are decidedly de-romanticizing. Love is longed for, but then not appreciated, it suffocates in everyday routines, tips over into loneliness, hardens, turns sour and ultimately cannot be reawakened even in therapeutic couple talks. The longing to be recognized by the other always remains painfully present. Mader's approach is sober, distanced and strict. As if she wanted to use formal restriction to maintain control over what becomes so terribly visible over time in the empty spaces, the ellipses, the silence and the cold gaze: In the end, you are always alone.
What is love is not only an outstanding example of the programming of contemporary Austrian cinema, Mader's work also demonstrates the multifaceted potential of the unwieldy: sober, distanced, austere - yet full of compassion and characterized by a deep interest in the human.
